Strong, Sleek and Sinful - By Lorie O'Clare Page 0,135

her into her arms, hugging her fiercely. It was an act he hadn’t seen between the two of them in ages, and he hated thinking of where the night could have ended up if events had turned out differently. He would give thanks they didn’t, though, and prayed that the reality of the situation would scare some serious sense into his nieces.

Diane crawled off Dani’s double-sized bed and straightened her blouse that hung low over leggings, which showed off her thin legs. Then grabbing her hair at her nape and pulling it behind her shoulders, she turned to Kylie but didn’t approach her. “Thanks for helping our uncle,” Diane said, fidgeting with the bottom of her shirt as if hesitating to say more. “Good night,” she added, then walked around her uncle to her room across the hall.

“Yell at me tomorrow, okay?” Dani said, rolling to the side of the bed. “I just want to crash.”

“Be grateful you are crashing in your bed tonight,” Perry said, wishing he could think of the perfect thing to say that would convince him Dani wouldn’t ever seek out a stranger online again. “And we will discuss this in great detail tomorrow. I’ll be over to get a full statement from you.”

“Like the real deal?” Dani’s eyes lit up, as she once again saw all of this as a great big adventure.

“No,” he barked. “Not like the real deal. This is the real deal, young lady, so damn real you better never forget it.”

“I won’t, I promise.” She dropped her feet off the side of her bed but then sat there instead of standing. “I need to go to the bathroom and get ready to go to sleep.”

Kylie headed toward the door, pausing when Perry didn’t move and hugged herself. Perry looked at his niece, who met his gaze, suddenly looking very sad.

“I guess I wanted someone to care for me and want me for me so badly, Uncle Perry, I refused to look at the obvious. Kylie and I went through a lot of the text messages Petrie and I exchanged and it was kind of obvious he wasn’t who he said he was. Kylie pointed out some things I’ll be sure and check for in the future.”

Perry knew how proud Dani was. She was just like him in that sense. Being wrong sucked. But getting killed over stupidity sucked even more. He still wanted to knock some serious sense into her, but the way she looked at him right now, appearing more defeated and so incredibly innocent with all of that crap washed off her face, Perry was around Kylie before he thought about it and pulling Dani into a huge bear hug.

Lifting her off the floor, he wrapped his arms around her slender, firm body. She was the perfect sixteen-year-old, her future ahead of her and so many doors open and waiting for her to choose. No one would rip her out of his life. This family already had lost a good man, Megan’s husband and the girls’ father. It had nearly destroyed them, and only time and a lot of love kept them from falling completely to pieces. No one would do any more damage to Perry’s girls.

“I love you, Dani,” he said, his voice thicker with emotion than he cared for it to be.

“I love you, too, Uncle Perry,” Dani said, a sob catching in her throat.

Perry did a final walk-through of the house, making sure everyone was in bed and checking all doors and windows. It crossed his mind to take Kylie home and then come back here, camp out on the couch for the night. Then it also hit him to just keep Kylie with him and both of them crash here.

Although he didn’t really like what Megan had to say, she had a point. Bringing a lady around the girls, if that lady wasn’t going to hang around, didn’t help create a healthy environment for any of them. He couldn’t do that any more than Megan could have men coming in and out of her life. Parenthood had some fucking steep criteria.

Chapter 23

Kylie glanced at the clock on the wall and again at her cell phone as it rang for the third time. “Hello,” she said, and adjusted her Bluetooth in her ear. “Did you stay home from school today?”

“Mom said I could.” Dani sounded like her usual happy self. “I drew a picture of the guy in that black SUV last night. Would you like